Work Text:
He doesn’t know what’s happening.
One second he’s antagonizing Souda and the next his mind is running completely blank. His lungs stutter in his chest as he tries to breathe, finding himself unable to respond to the questions he can vaguely register being thrown his way. The feeling is familiar but that does little to comfort him. Freaking out like this is not only shameful but unhelpful and unpleasant.
Takeru spends several minutes watching the other cops leave, mind eerily blank as he simply stares. He feels like he’s been dunked into some sort of fish tank, watching the world around him from the inside while he suffocates. His chest hurts and he knows his hands are shaking but he only registers those things vaguely, unable to bring himself to do anything about them. The sound of the shot rings in his ears over and over like a broken record.
When Ichika is the only one left he finds himself breaking.
The eerie calm that had come over his brain fades away into an overwhelming kind of fear. His breathing goes from shallow to desperate and fast, quivering hands grasping at Ichika’s uniform as he looks her over. His vision flickers with memories of his mother smiling up at him with blood leaking from her mouth and he can’t help but imagine Ichika in her place. If things had gone even slightly different she could have gotten hurt or even worse and-
She’s worried, he can tell. Her green eyes are blown wide as she holds onto his arms, looking him over wildly as if unsure what to do. Takeru can’t seem to make sense of what she’s saying though, nor what’s coming out of his own mouth. The words are drowned out by the ringing sound, the one sound he hated most and yet would never be able to forget.
His lungs stutter up and down over and over but Takeru finds that he can’t get any air. Fear spikes through him at the sensation which only makes him spiral more. It’s a vicious cycle, like a whirlpool he can’t escape. Before he knows it his vision is darkening, Ichika’s grip tightening on his arms as his knees give out.
‘Damn it.’